TEMECULA: Dueling visions for Jackson-Ynez corridor

Opening of the Jackson/Ynez bridge has got developers salivating at the prospects of building on their land but there are competing visions for the property, a corridor that includes the new Mercedes-Benz dealership in Temecula, an RV dealership and a mobile home park. in Murrieta.

JACKSON-YNEZ CORRIDOR

• Murrieta side – 70 undeveloped acres

• Temecula side – 99 undeveloped acres

Sources: City of Temecula, Howard Omdahl

The opening of a bridge that connects Murrieta’s Jackson Avenue with Ynez Road in Temecula has sparked a high-stakes lobbying battle that is pitting developers with rival visions for the land against each other.

The finger-shaped acreage on the eastern side of Interstate 15 – bisected by the Murrieta-Temecula border – already includes a Mercedes-Benz dealership, an RV dealership/repair shop and a mobile home park. In the future, a new off-ramp and bridge will be built that connects the land to the French Valley Parkway off-ramp on the western side of the freeway.

Officials with both cities want to see the land developed with something that generates tax revenue and benefits the Twin Cities region. But they are restricted in their ability to frame that future via zoning laws. They are counter-punchers waiting for the developers, a group that includes landowners Bernie Truax and Howard Omdahl, to lead.

Truax – a developer who recently opened a namesake, four-story building in Old Town Temecula that landed an online education company as a tenant – wants to build something similar in the corridor: a campus of high-rise office buildings that will house high-tech companies providing white-collar jobs.

“I just do what I do,” he said during a recent interview. “I believe I have a better idea.”

Omdahl, a developer active in both Murrieta and Temecula, is actively shopping a plan for the Murrieta side of the corridor called “Via Ynez Norte.” It would include shops, restaurants and a possibly a high-end auto dealership.

He wants to change the name of Jackson to Via Ynez Norte to link the byway with Ynez Road to the south, which, he said, is already known as a major regional retail destination.

“It’s definitely a five-year plan,” he said. “We have some entitlement work to go through first with Murrieta.”

The work would include a zone change to allow for the development of additional retail/commercial on the acreage, which currently includes land zoned for office uses.

Truax, who in the past had hoped to work with Omdahl, said he plans to fight that sort of change because he believes his vision, which he has been dubbed Creekside, will be more valuable to the region in the long run.

The jobs generated by the office buildings, he said, will allow area residents to avoid hour-long or more commutes to their jobs in Orange and San Diego counties.

“They (the employers) have to have a reason to come here,” he said.

Omdahl said Thursday he disagrees with Truax’s description of his plans and said the market doesn’t need more office space.

“There is a 20 percent vacancy rate in the Murrieta/Temecula market that will take years to absorb,” he said.

Other parties interested

In addition to those two players, there are some other major stakeholders working to shape the corridor’s future. The list includes Erik Kitley, owner of Temecula Valley RV Services; Ron Tate, a landowner who has negotiated in the past with both Omdahl and Truax; Steve Bieri, owner of land in the southern part of the corridor on the Temecula side of the line; and Chip Polvoorde, owner of the Murrieta Palms mobile home park.

Tate said Thursday that he has come to agree with Omdahl about the viability of regional commercial for the corridor, which, he said, provides a lot more flexibility than professional office.

Tate said he’s been in discussions with car dealers, hotels and a hospitality company, industries that will pump tax revenue into Murrieta’s city coffers.

“There’s more of a demand for commercial,” he said.

Kitley operated in the corridor largely by himself for several years in anticipation of the bridge getting built. With the span now complete, he said there is a flurry of new development just around the corner and the acreage has become, practically overnight, one of the most coveted development spots in Southwest Riverside County.

“We knew that was going to happen,” Kitley said. “They (Omdahl and Truax) are going to assemble and sell as much property as they can. Between me and the freeway, I’m assuming that’s all going to be commercial. With the exception of the Golden Triangle, it’s the next area with the biggest build-out potential. You have great visibility there.”

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